Power transmission



POWER TRANSMISSION Filed June 10, 1946 INVENTOR. HARRY F VICKERS, KENNETH R. HERMAN & WALTER M. POHL ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 25, 1950 POWER TRANSMISSION Harry F. Vickers. Detroit, Kenneth R. Herman, Franklin, and Walter M. Pohl, Birmingham, Mich., assignors to Vickers Incorporated, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application June 10, 1946, Serial No. 675,806

4 Claims. 1 This invention relates to power transmissions. particularly to those of the type comprising two or more fluid pressure energy translating devices, one 01' which may function as a pump and another as a fluid motor.

The invention is more particularly concerned with a hydraulic power and control system adapted for use on vehicles and especially to such vehicles as switching and mine locomotives having an internal combustion engine prime mover. There have been many proposals and attempts to provide motor vehicles of this class with infinitely variable hydraulic transmissions and with various automatic and semi-automatic systems for controlling the speed ratio to meet the wide variety oi operating conditions encountered.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved ower and control system which requires an absolute minimum of skill on the part of the operator and which may be manually set to produce automatically any desired vehicle speed and vehicle acceleration.

Another object is to provide in a system of this character automatic supervisory controls which do not normally affect the operation of the manual controls but which when certain operating limits are exceeded, for example, the tractive capacity of the vehicle wheels will take over control of the transmission to maintain its output below selected limits.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system having an improved means of enabling the vehicle to free-wheel in either direction in addition to providing an open bypass across the main circuit when the controls are in neutral position.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a control system of this character wherein automatic speed responsive means are provided for preventing reversal of the controls under conditions where sudden reversal would overload the mechanism.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing wherein a preferred form 01' the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a power transmission and control system embodying a preferred form of the present invention.

Figure 8 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

In the system illustrated, I represents a prime mover of the internal combustion engine type having a speed responsive governor. The engine'lll has its output shaft l6 connected to drive a reversible variable displacement pump I8 having a yoke 20; which may be angularly adjusted to vary the direction and volumetric rate of fluid delivery by the pump. The pump I8 is connected by main fluid circuit conduits 22 and 24 to a variable displacement fluid motor 26. The latter may be provided with a swinging yoke 28 which may be angularly adjusted to change its displacement per revolution over a substantial range, for example, two to one, without, however, reversing the relation between fluid flow and shaft rotation. The output shaft 30 may be connected by suitable gearing 32 to the driving wheel or wheels 34 of the vehicle.

The pump and motor yokes 20 and 2B are provided with slidable control rods 36 and 38 mounted in bearings 40 and connected to the yokes by links 42. The control rods 38 and 38 may be actuated in correlated relation by any suitable means, that illustrated comprising a horizontally shiftable cam 44 having slots 45 and 48 adapted to coact with followers 50 and 52 carried by the ends of the control rods. The cam slots are so arranged that when the cam N is in neutral position illustrated. yoke 20 is maintained in neutral position and yoke 28 in its maximum displacement position. Upon displacement of cam 44 to the left or right, yoke 20 is'first shifted gradually downwardly or upwardly to its maximum disp acement position while yoke 28 remains unchanged. Further movement of cam 44 holds the yoke 20 in position and swings the yoke 28 toward a position of reduced displacement. The cam 44 thus constitutes a single member for varying the speed ratio and the direction of power transmission between the pump and motor. The cam 44 is adapted to be positioned by a hydraulic actuator 54 comprising a piston slidable within a cylinder 55 and normally biased to center position by high rate springs 58 and 60. Thus, whenever fluid under pressure is admitted to one end of the cylinder 56, the spring in the opposite end will be compressed to a degree depending upon the pressure value maintained in the one end of the cylinder.

For the purpose of supplying and controlling the admission of fluid to the actuator 54!, there is provided a pilot hydraulic system com rising a fixed displacement pum 62 driven from the engine in and having a suction conduit 64 connected to a fluid reservoir 66. The delivery conduit 68, provided with the usual relief valve ll and relief conduit 12, has an adjustable compensated flow control valve 14 therein and leads to the inlet port of a four-way reverse valve 18. The valve 14 is preferably of the type which maintains any desired flow rate independently of the pressure conditions, the rate being adjustable by a dial 18. Thereturn line 18 from the reverse valve 18 leads through a pressure responsive back-pressure valve 88 to the tank 88. The valve 18 is connected to the actuator 84 by conduits 82 and 84.- Connected to the delivery line 88 by a branch conduit 88 is a bleed valve 88 which when open by-passes the delivery of pump 82 back to the tank 88. The valve 88, while not responsive to operating pressure in conduit 88 because it is hydraulically balanced, is nevertheless arranged to be variably opened and closed to regulate that pressure by the action of certain automatic and manual control means later to be described.

The control of the bleed valve 88 is primarily in response to vehicle speed and for this purpose a speed governor I84 may be driven from an idler wheel I88 by gearing I88 and shaft I88.- The governor I 84 adiusts the valve 88 through the medium of a T-shaped lever H8 fulcrumed at H2 and is so arranged that an increase in speed 7 tends to open the valve 88 and vice versa. The valve 88 is subject to manual adjustment of its responsive speed and for this purpose the valve has a slidable sleeve 88 carrying the ports which cooperate with the spool. The sleeve 88 is operated by a control rod I I8 which is manually oper-' ated by a cam I28. When the cam I28 is in its neutral position slightly clockwise from the position shown, the rod H8 is at its farthest righthand position in which the speed governor I84 and is operated along with valve 18. The valve I18 is connected across the main circuit lines 22 and 24 by branch conduits I88 and I82 and the internal porting and lands of the spool are so proportioned that when in central position, the branch conduits I 88 and I82 are open to each other. In the body of the valve I18 is a check valve I84, the inlet I88 of which is adapted to be selectively connected with conduit I88 or I 82 depending upon which of the two extreme positions the spool of valve I18 occupies.

The shaft 88 carries a speed governor I88 which is thus responsive to the speed of the driving wheel 84. Connected between the speed governors I88 and I84 is a floating lever I88, the floating fulcrum I82 of which is connected by a rod I84 to a second bleed valve I88. The inlet port of valve I88 is connected to conduit 88 by a branch I88 and the outlet port of valve I88 is connected to tank 88 by a conduit 288.

In operation, with the engine I8 running and with the speed adjustment lever I88 moved from neutral to the position shown on the drawing, this movement will have positioned the valves 18 and I18 to the left, as shown, this action having been caused by the cam slot I24 acting through the rod I28 and linkages I88, I82 and the left and the cam 44, through the action of slot trols a rod I28 shiftable in bearings I28 and con- .is pivoted on a transverse axis I38 for movement toward and away from the plane of the drawing and has a downward extension I 48 which projects through a stationary plate I42.

The plate I42 (see 2) is provided with a zig-zag slot I44 with a central vertical portion I 48 through which the handle extension may be moved laterally when in neutral position. The.

plate I42 is provided with a bearing I48 intersecting the portion I48 and a pin I88 is slidable in the bearing to selectively block movement of the handle extension I48 from one side to the other of neutral position. Pin I 88 is controlled by governor I 84 by the extension I82 of lever II8, link I84 and bellcrank I88.

For the purpose of providing a positive neutral and also a free-wheeling action there is provided a' neutral by-pass and free-wheeling control which may be actuated from the cam I28 by rod I28. For this purpose, a four-way reverse valve 48, moves the yoke 28 downwardly causing the delivery of pump I8 to increase proportionately. Oil is accordingly pumped from conduit 24 into conduit 22 which drives the fluid motor 28 in a direction which for the present purposes will be termedforward.

The speed of movement of piston 84 and cam 44 is determined by the adjustment of the flow regulating valve 14 and can be set to give any desired vehicle acceleration rate. As soon as the vehicle comes up to a speed corresponding to the setting of lever I 88, the governor I84 will have pulled the lever I I8 downwardly to partially op n the bleed valve 88. when it has opened to the degree where the value of pressure in conduits 82, 88 and 88 will force the same quantity of oil through valve 88 as passes through valve 14, the piston 84 will stop moving andhold the cam 44 and yokes 28 and 28 in that adjusted position. The pressure maintained in conduits 82, 88 and 88 will -depend, of course, upon the position of piston 84 and compression of the spring 88. It will be seen that the action is such as to automatically maintain the vehicle speed at a constant value since any increase above that value will tend to open valve 88 farther, thus permitting more oil to bleed out of line 88 than comes into it through the flow control 14 which will permit the piston 84 to move back slightly to the right and correspondingly reduce the displacement of pump I8 and speed of the vehicle. The opposite action will occur upon a decrease in speed.

In the-event that the setting of the flow regulator valve or acceleration control 14 should be too high for a slippery track condition, the super- I18 is preferably formed as a part of valve 18 7 visorycontrol originating at floating lever I 88 will be brought into play. Thus, when the driving wheel 34 starts to slip, it will cause the speed regulator I88 to raise the left end of lever I90 by an amount greater than the righthand end thereof has been lowered by the speed regulator I04. Thus, the valve I96 is shifted upwardly to bleed oil out of conduit I98 into conduit 200. This accordingly by-passes directly to tank some of the oil delivered through flow regulating valve 14 and retards the rate of leftward motion of piston 54 or may even entirely stop it. Thus, accelerations of the driving wheel 34 are held down to a point where it cannot rotate ahead of the idler wheel I00 even though the controls be manually set for a higher rate of acceleration. When operating the vehicle to accelerate in the reverse direction, valve I 98 is also shifted upwardly to limit the rate of movement of piston 54 toward the right.

It will be noted that the system provides control of acceleration rates by the mechanism above described and that it is ineffective to control deceleration. The latter type of control is unnecessary in view of the fact that the free wheeling check valve I84 is provided. Thus, in the event that the speed lever I38 should be suddenly shifted from a high speed setting to a neutral position, the system would not be overloaded in any way because the inertia of the vehicle will continue the motor 26 in operation as a pump. The excess fluid delivered into line 24 beyond that accepted therefrom by the pump I8 will pass through the branch I82, valve I18,

check valve I84 and branch I80 back to the forward delivery line 22.

When the control lever I 36 is set for reverse operation, valves 16 and I18 are shifted to their opposite position from those shown on the drawing. This has the effect of transferring delivery of pump 82 to the conduit 84 and left end of cylinder 56, thus producing the same type of control as previously described except that cam 44 is shifted to the right and cam slot 46 will raise the yoke 20 rather than lower it. This, of course, reverses the delivery condition in the main circuit 22-24 and causes the motor 28 to operate in the opposite direction. The shifting of valve I18 also transposes connection of check valve I84 with the branch conduits I80 and I82 so that it then becomes effective to block flow from conduit 24 to conduit 22 and permits free flow in the opposite direction.

While the check valve I84 prevents overloading of the mechanism in the event of sudden shifting of speed lever I 36 from a high speed to a neutral position, it would be possible to dangerously overload the equipment with the controls thus far described if the lever were suddenly moved from high speed forward to high speed reverse, for exampl': That is because the valve I18 reverses the connections of check valve I 84 as the lever is moved through neutral which would have the effect of suddenly blocking the outlet path for the oil delivered by motor 26 (acting as a pump) into conduit 24. In order to prevent this, the neutral interlock pin I50 is held in the position shown in Figure 2 at all times when the vehicle speed is above a predetermined value. Thus the extension I40 of the lever I36 is confined either to the upper portion of slot I44 (as shown in Figure 2) during forward operation or to the lower portion thereof during reverse operation. When the speed drops to a safe small value, the pin I becomes fully retracted, thus permitting transfer from the upper to the lower slot portion or vice versa. Preferably the speed at-which pin I40 is fully retracted is such that it is possible to rapidly "rock" the vehicle forward and back where such action is desirable under bad traction condition.

In the form illustrated, the invention includes means for controlling not merely the displacement of the pump I8 but also that of the fluid motor 26. This has the eil'ect of greatly increasing the rangeof speed ratios available with a given size of pump and motor combination since, when the full displacement of the pump I8 is reached, further increases in speed may be obtained by decreasing the displacement of the motor 26. This contributes materially to the economy of construction since smaller hydraulic units may be utilized.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A hydraulic drive and control system for a motor vehicle or the like comprising a pump and a fluid motor connected together in a main power circuit, means including a hydraulic actuator for adjusting the relative displacements of the pump and motor to vary the ratio of power transmission between them, a source of pressure fluid for said actuator, said vehicle having a driven traction wheel and a free rolling idler wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the traction wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the idler wheel, means differentially connecting said speed governors, including a valve controlling the delivery of fluid to said actuator to actuate said adjusting means in response to a difference in the speed of said wheels, and means connecting one 01' said speed governors to control said adjusting means while the speed of both wheels is the same. I

V 2. A hydraulic drive and control system for a motor vehicle or. the like comprising a pump and a fluid motor connected together in a main power circuit, means including a hydraulic actuator for adjusting the relative displacement of the pump and motor to vary the ratio of power transmission between them, a source of pressure :fiuid for said actuator, said vehicle having a driven traction wheel and a free rolling idler wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the traction wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the idler wheel, and means diiferentially connecting said speed governors, including a valve controlling the delivery of fluid to said actuator, to actuate said adjusting means in response to a difference in the speed of said wheels.

3. A hydraulic drive and control system for a motor vehicle or the like comprising a pump and a fluid motor connected together in a main power circuit, means including a hydraulic actuator for adjusting the relative displacements of the pump and motor to vary the ratio of power transmission between them, a source of pressure fluid for said actuator, said vehicle having a driven traction wheel and a free rolling idler wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the traction wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the idler wheel, means differentially connecting said speed governors, including a valve controlling the delivery of fluid to said actuator, to actuate said adjusting means in response to a difierence in the speed of said wheels, and means including a second valve controlled by one of said governors to control the supply of fluid to the actuator while both wheels are rotating at equal speeds.

4. A hydraulic drive and control system for a motor vehicle or the like comprising a pump and a fluid motor connected together in a main power circuit, means including a hydraulic actuator for adjusting the relative displacements of the pump and motorto vary the ratio of power transmis.- sion between them, a source of pressure fluid for said actuator, said vehicle having a driven traction wheel and a free rolling idler wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the traction wheel, a speed governor responsive to the speed of the idler wheel, means differentially connectin: said speed governors, including avalve controlling the delivery of fluid to said actuator to actuate said adjusting means in response to a diilerence in the speed of said wheels, and means including another valve also controlling the delivery oi' fluid to said actuator and connecting one I oissidspeedgovernorstocontrolssidsdlusting moans while the speed oi both wheels is the same.

HARRY I". VICKERS. KENNETH R. HERMAN. WALTER M. POHL.

ammoas crran The following references are 0! record in the me of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,655,740 Robson Jan. 10, 1928 2,037,873 Ferris Apr. 14, 1986 15 2,197,731 Nonemaker et a]. Apr. 16, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 239,824 Germany Oct. 14, 1911 

